INDIA
Blame British in plot

—BOMBAY

"THE Indian people have risen
' to fight back the counter-
‘revolutionary conspiracy against
itself, the most dastardly feature
of« which was the murder of
Gandhi. Events miscalled “In-
dian riots” following Gandhi’s
death, were actually militant and
determined demonstrations of en-
Taged people led by the work-
ing class. Enraged people were
giving to conspirators punish-
ment they deserve. ‘ :
_ As is known, the murder of
Gandhi was the outcome of deep-
jaid conspiracy to murder all
_ Popular leaders who stood in the

_ Way of reactionary elements in

the government who want to
build an authoritarian reaction-
ary state in India. It was a
conspiracy not to change the
. Present government, but to mur-
der Gandhi, Nehru and their
colleagues in order to strengthen
_ Hindu communal leaders in the
present government, thus chang-
ing ‘its complexion.
Main elements in the conspir-
_ &cy were most of the communal
Hindu organizations like Hindu
: Mahasabha and Rashtriya Swayan
Sevak Sangh (RSSS), the latter a
_ fanatical semi-military organiza-
_ tion based on Hitlerian storm-
_ trooper principles. They are pro-
_ feudal and pro-imperialist. ‘They
heve been consistently utilized
by the British imperialists and
feudal Indian princes to fight
_ back people’s movements. They
_ have played the most prominent
Part in the post-partition riots.
__ Progressives firmly believe here
that the policy of British im-
Perialists is mainly responsible
For a long time, the progres-
-Sives,_ led by the Communist
Party have warned the govern-
ment against them. The gov-
_ ernment (instrument of Indian

_ big business as it is, took action °

_ against the Communist Party in-
‘Stead of these elements. Patel,
deputy prime minister, actually
encouraged them. A representa-
_ tive of the Hindu Mahasabha,
_ Doctor Shyamaprosad Mukherjee
_ Was taken into the central cab-
_As soon as the people heard
_ the name of the murderer ‘they
_ drew their own conclusions. They
_ Came out in the street and did
what the government had refused

» do. In Poona, the murderer’s
home town, Bombay, ° Calcutta,

action against thé con-
Spirators, struck at the people,
They have arrested militant trade
unionists and Communists. The
Police and military are shooting
down the people. Leaders of
the government led by Patel are
making every effort to shield
the conspirators.
in spite of the brutal repression.
The people demand that not only.

known conspirators, but their

sympathizers in

government also

_ Forced ‘by popular pressure to _

act, the government this week
took over administration of a

investigation, the gov-
made new raids on left-

‘Demonstrations _ still continue —

MOHANDAS K. GANDHI
“His assassination was the out-
come of a deep-laid conspiracy
‘to murder all popular leaders
who stood in the way of re-
actionary elements in the gov-

»

CHINA

Road to victory

ROSPECTS of the present
offensive of the Chinese Liber-
ation Armies opening into a
nation-wide victory over Chiang
Kai-shek’s forces were envisaged

by Mao Tse-tung in a recent.

speech. : ‘

The veteran chairman
China’s 2,700,000-strong Commun-
ist Party told his central com-
mittee, in a report on 1947, that
“a turning point’ had been
reached. ;

The People’s Liberation Army,
he said, has beaten back the
offensive of the reactionary Kuo-
mintang, and has itself passed
over to the offensive.

The war is now already being
wage chiefly in territory con-

%

trolled by the Kuomintang, and .

not in’ the liberated districts.

This is a decisive turn toward
victory, said Mao Tse-tung, “a
departure from the road of
destruction which the country
has trod over 20 years of coun-
_ter- revolutionary Kuomintang
domination.

“This is the end of the ex-
termination which -our people
have suffered in the course of
more than a century of imperial-
ist rule in China.

“This is a great event because
it is taking place in a country
with a population of 450,000,000.

Mao Tse-tung explained how
Chiang Kai-shek began the war
with the belief that he had a
_ two million-strong regular army,
the whole resources of the cap-
tured Japanese Army, and other
-reserves, :

He had also “received great
military and financial aid from
the United States, and believed
it would take only three months
to defeat the Liberation Armies.

“Yet within 17 months,” said
the © leader, “We
Smashed up Chiang Kai-shek’s
regular and irregular forces,
and taking 1,000,000 prisoner.

“Chiang and his American
masters should now be aware of
their mistakes in underestimating
the strength of the revolutionary
‘Feople, and that their strategic
calculations have been thoroughly
upset,” a ee

The world in review

of

BRITAIN

Britons face blackest year as U.S. drives for domination

By WILLIAM RUST

—LONDON.

this country will pass under the domination of the United States, inflation will ex-

ie 1948 Britain faces its blackest year, for unless there is a radical change of policy

tend, with a consequent rise in prices, there will be a marked increase in unem-
ployment, and the people’s living standards will be heavily depressed. oe. :

These facts are well known to Labor leaders. Herbert Morrison, it is true, still
talks frivolously about “rounding recovery corner,” but Sir Stafford Cripps, who is really
running the British economic machine, has nothing but grim words about Britain’s eco-

nomic future. And Prime Minis-
ter Attlee, who last March
promised a Five-Year Plan, is
now coldly silent.

The government promised that
1948 would be a year of socialist
economics. Instead, it will be a
‘year of serious decline in which
all the worst maladies of capi-
talism will get the upper hand.
_And the fault, it should be
noted, does not lie with the
working class or the trade
unions. The miners have work-
ed miracles, the steelworkers
have sent production soaring to
its highest point, the railway-
men broke all records with their
recent turn-round
and the textile workers have
really delivered the goods. i

But the government policy
has made a mockery of these
great efforts in which, incident-
ally, the Communists have par-
ticipated to the full. It is time
to declare bluntly that the pro-
paganda about more production
being the solution to our prob-
lems is deceitful to the extreme
and is deliberately intended to
distract attention from the fa-
tal policies which are at the
root of the growing crisis.

e

ECAUSE of the adverse bal-

ance of trade with the U.S.
the British gold and dollar re-
Serve is now being paid out
to the Americans at the rate
cf £60 million ($240 million) a
month, and it is estimated that
the reserve will be exhausted
by September, possibly earlier.

And even.if home production
continues toe rise, even if we
achieve our grandiose export
targets for 1948 and cut our
imports, including food, to the
minimum, Sir Stafford Cripps
estimates that Britain will still
be faced with an annual dollar
deficit of £300 million ($1,200
million),

By the autumn of 1948 Britain
will be unable to pay its way
in the world. It will be under
the’ domination of the U.S. and
dependent on dollar. aid.

This is where the Marshall
plan comes jin, nicely timed to
hit Britain when the economic
crisis reaches its most acute
stage. ,

e : ‘Sag
real cause of Britain’s
crisis is not to be found in
the low level of production on
the .part of the workers, but
in the following factors:
The imperialist policy pursued

by the government which is

holding up the reconstruction of

of wagons, ©

price changes

and keep over one million wor-
kers out of industry.

Unless these political causes
of the crisis are removed it
will become even graver, and
its gravity will be worsened by
the policy of those who are de-
manding lower wages and the
consumption of less food by the
workers whom they are exhort-
ing to work harder.

@

RIVEN by its own economic

necessities, Britain has now
concluded a trading agreement
with the Soviet Union which
offers very hig potentialities.

But between Britain’s economic ©

policy and its political attitude
to the Soviet Union there re-
mains a complete contradiction.

While Wilson was concluding
a trade agreement in London
Bevin was lining up with Mar-
shall in London for a political
fight against the Soviet Union
over the question of Germany.
In return for the £650 million
($2,600 million) he expects to
get from the Marshall plan,
Bevin has agreed to throw away
a far greater sum in terms of
British trade and economic po-
tentialities,

e

"THE government has yet to

carry out a major socialist
measure in the economic sphere
and there are no _ indieations
that any are intended during
1948. Nationalization of the
mines and railways on the basis

of high compensation for the
owners and establishment of na-
tional boards may improve ef-
ficiency. but they cannot be
classified as socialist measures.
Capitalism and dividend~iraw-
ing remain as strong as ever.

‘In crisis-stricken Britain pro-
tits are continually going up.
The latest returns (January 1-
December 17, 1947) show that
1,937 firms made a profit of
£019,667,000 — ($2,078,668,000) com-
pared with £480,1943,000 ($1,920,-
772,000) for the previous year;
an increase of £39,474,000 ($157,-
896,000).

Why are practically no meas-
ures taken to scoop in these
vast profits and to impose a
capital levy which would pro-
vide the state with the re-
sources that it needs to carry
through its reconstruction pro-
gram?

Here then we have the key
to the anti-Communist drive an-
nounced by the leaders of the
Labor Party and the TUC. They
have set their compass for 1948.
Rather than resort to bold so-
cialist measures they have made
@ pact with the Tories and
the FBI for a solution of the
crisis by attacks on the work-
ing class standards and by a
sell-out to the United States.

In 1948 the Attlee government
will become the instrument of
the capitalist offensive in the
same way, although on a far
larger scale, as the MacDonald
government was in 1931.

UNITED

STATES

Wall Street gets ready for a depression

—NEW YORK.

\VHILE the commodity market

decline continues to make
headlines, newspapers ranging
from the Wall Street Journal
to the Daily Worker appear
agreed that it is too early to
assess the reasons for and re-
sults of the development.

While consumers found store
prices dropping only a few ceuts
on some products, the market
in some _ cases
were far from insignificant. In
a single week, wheat dropped
about 60 cents a bushel, corn
52 cents, soybeans 5714 cents.
Meats were slightly less spec-
tacular .with hams dropping 14%
cents a pound, bacon 12 cents
and pork loins 6% cents.

One fact that stands out 1s
that the current break in com-
modity prices reflects a general
uncertainty which has prevail-
€d in industry since the stock

Market fell in the fall of 1946.

The National City Bank of

New York noted this fact in its

current monthly economic tet-

ter, published just prior to the
commodity price break: “It
seems to be true... that un-
easiness over the outlook iis in-
creasing. The country is riding
the boom not confidently and
comfortably, but rather with a
sense that the position becomes
precarious as time goes on.”
The Wall Street Journal re-
ported: “There’s no agreement
yet among Washington’s eco-
nomic seers on whether the
market shakeout is just a tar-

reaching ‘adjustment’ or the be-

ginning of a -recession. But
plans are being made ‘just in
case,’” ;

The New York Times quotes
one of the administration’s top
economic advisers as Saying:
“We've found no new  preven-
tives for depression. We've got
to work with the same old de-
vices—public works, lighter tax-
es, farm price supports.”

Homer Vilas of the Associa-
“tion of Stock Exchange Firms
cautioned business to “be pre-
pared for a depression, even
though one is not likely.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10

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